Tuesday, 20 June 2023

KIDNAPPED (PART 5 of 5)


She didn't look like she could kill someone.


Then again, she didn't look like she could kidnap someone either.



His head was throbbing. He was groggy. The feeling was somehow familiar yet his brain was too foggy to make anything of it.


He groaned as he tried to open his eyes. But some kind of bright warm light made it a very difficult feat for him.


After struggling for God knows how long, he was finally able to open his eyes and was greeted with the sunlight that was entering the room through the windows and falling right on his eyes.


Another groan left his lips as he turned his throbbing head to the other side. This time he was faced with a beige wall that lacked any kind of decorating items. 


Slowly but steadily he realised that he was in his room. Having shifted to his new apartment only a week ago, he had barely gotten enough time to unpack all his belongings and settle down, so the decorations had to wait.


He tried to locate his phone on the bed with his wandering hands, to see the time, as he could not figure what time of the day it was.


Once he found it, he brought it close to his face and was not-so-pleasantly surprised to see it was nearing 4:30 p.m.


He tried to remember what could have happened the night before to make him sleep through the day and also give him such a massive headache. As the memories of the previous night flooded his mind, he groaned once again thinking about how his manager would probably chew his head off if she came to know that he had spent almost the entire night at a party.


Checking his phone once again to see if he had any missed calls or messages from his manager, he finally noticed 4 missed calls and 2 messages, all timed around two hours ago. The first message simply consisted of some colourful and choice words and the second simply consisted of the information about when and where he was supposed to meet her before the interview he had this evening. Looking at the time once again, he deduced that he had about 2 and a half hours before he had to leave.


He stayed splayed on his bed for another couple of minutes before even attempting to leave the bed.


After he managed to sit up, he realised that he must have had too much to drink the previous night to leave him feeling this groggy and dizzy. Another couple of minutes passed in which he tried not to fall face-first as he made his way towards his bathroom.


A thorough shower later he felt a little better but thought it would be best if he took a pill for his headache. And also if he ate something, because if not his throbbing head then his growling stomach was sure to kill him.


Slowly making his way to his still new kitchen, he took out some juice from his refrigerator and heated up some of the home cooked food his mother had packed and stored for him two days back when she had come to visit him, in the microwave oven.


He ate as he checked the news feeds and the notifications of his various Social Media accounts. Nothing seemed to pique his interest.


After he was done, he washed the glass and the container from which he had directly eaten his meal and took a pill for headache, before making his way back to his bedroom.


It was while he was looking through his closet to find something suitable to wear when his eyes landed on two boxes placed at the bottom shelf. And an unconscious smile found its way onto his lips.


It has been a little more than 6 years since that fateful night. The night when he was kidnapped by a young woman whose name was still unknown to him save for the information that her name started with T and she liked the colour green.


He still remembered how he had found himself splayed on his bed in his room in his tiny apartment of those days, the following day. At first, he found it hard to believe that he was not murdered by those buffed up ‘boys’ of ‘T’ as he was sure he would be and the police would probably have found his dead and decaying body a few days later in some garbage.


But that was definitely not the case as he woke up, safe and sound, at his own place.


However, that was not all. When he made to leave the bed, he found that his room was littered with several boxes of different sizes. One of a brand new iphone with a sticky note on it stating “Sorry about your phone. All your contacts are already saved in this one. -T”. Another consisted of the 3-piece suit in orange he wore, with a similar sticky note stating “Coz you liked it sooooooo much. -T”. Another consisted of the neon green sneakers, the sticky note stating “And this too. -T”. Another two boxes consisted of the white sneakers and denim and blazer set that she had chosen for him to wear. “Coz you looked like a runway model in them. -T”, the sticky note said. And another had the watch case along with the four watches she had asked him to choose from, with the note stating “I know you liked them all. -T”.


One particularly big box was gift wrapped in black, complete with a red ribbon, unlike the others which were simply brown boxes. The note on it stated “A gift from the girls. -T”. Though he had been afraid to see what was in it, he had later found that it consisted of a grooming kit and a set of four cologne.


There were also two envelopes on the bedside table, along with a glass of water and a pill for his headache. “You should drink a lot of water and stay hydrated for today. Try to stay indoors and take rest for the day. -T”, the note stuck to the glass stated.


One of the envelopes had a signed check with double the amount of what he got for his usual shoots. Alas, he could not make out the name from the signature. The other envelope had the recipes of the vegetable soup and the reddish concoction. “Coz you seemed to love the taste. -T”.


He had felt overwhelmed to say the least. Each and every note was written in the same handwriting and signed in the same way. Except for the recipes, of course.


It was quite clear to him that she had indeed written all the notes herself. She didn’t need to do all those. Or give him those things. Sparing his life would have been enough for sure. But with time he had learned to cherish those, as a reminder of the night when he thought he would never get to see the light of the day again.


He still had each and every item he got that day and he also used them from time to time. All except the 3-piece suit in orange and the neon green sneakers. Like who would even think of wearing them in their right state of mind! Definitely not him!


Now, so many years later, his fame has only increased and he has become a well-known face, having starred as the face and main character of numerous hit TV drama series.


Shaking his head he picked out what he would wear to the interview that evening.


As he got ready, he could not help but let out a little chuckle as he remembered the events of that night.


The night he was kidnapped.


********** 

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